Crabs, Miracle series even
Though it’s only the first year of a budding Florida State League rivalry between the Fort Myers Miracle and Charlotte Stone Crabs, the teams have seen each other enough for one season.
They’ll meet for the 23rd time Thursday night at Hammond Stadium in the decisive game of their best-of-three Southern Division Championship Series.
The Stone Crabs fought back Wednesday with a 7-4 victory over the host Miracle, after the Miracle had prevailed 8-7 in Tuesday’s opener.
The Miracle won 14 of the 20 meetings during the regular season, but Thursday’s game decides which team advances to the FSL Championship Series.
“Charlotte is the toughest team we’ve played all year,” Miracle manager Jeff Smith said. “They’re going to compete and battle all the way to the end like we are. I expect nothing less than the exciting game we had tonight.”
In the first two games of the series, the Miracle’s starting pitching, which had been so dominant through the regular season, has struggled against the Crabs.
In game one, right-handed ace David Bromberg (13-4, 2.70 ERA) was roughed up for seven earned runs on 10 hits in less than six innings. The Miracle still managed to slug their way to a one-run victory behind home runs from Estarlin de Los Santos and Joe Benson.
In Wednesday’s game, the Miracle fell into a 7-0 hole after the Crabs tagged left-hander Tyler Robertson (8-8, 3.33 ERA) for nine hits in the first three innings.
The Crabs strung together four straight hits to begin the top of the second and it led to a four-run inning. Ryan Royster had an RBI double, while Ian Paxton and Emeel Salem added RBI singles.
The Miracle send right-hander Santos Arias (6-3, 2.15 ERA) to the mound Thursday, against Charlotte’s David Newman.
“It’s hard to get two wins in two days, giving up seven runs each night,” Smith said. “(Santos) is well rested and we’ll let him go. I think both teams are throwing good pitchers tomorrow. We may finally get the pitcher’s duel we’ve been waiting to see.”
The Miracle have won games in many different ways this season, a reason why they finished first in the South Division standings in both the first and second half, and closed the regular season with an 80-58 record.
They’ve posted a 58-8 mark in games when leading after the fifth inning, and also have benefited from 31 come-from-behind wins.
Trailing 7-0, it was going to take quite a rally to clinch the series Wednesday, but the Miracle gave it a good run.
The big blast came in the bottom of the sixth when pinch hitter Nick Romero launched a three-run homer just inside the foul pole in right field.
The Miracle held the Stone Crabs scoreless over the final five innings. Boof Bonser worked two innings in relief in an MLB rehab assignment and retired all six batters with four strikeouts.
After a pair of walks were issued to Deibinson Romero and Nick Romero in the bottom of the eighth, Ben Revere came to the plate as the potential tying run. Revere hit a high pop up in the infield to end that inning.
The Miracle finished with seven hits and nine runners left on base.
“We have a little momentum,” Smith said. “I know they won the game, but we were on them the last (four) innings. We need to take that momentum into tomorrow’s game. We’ll be ready to play.”